I nodded and said, “Why would I lie to you? Tell me, doesn’t that fire look just like the ghost fire Old Martinez talked about?”

Monkey was startled. “Old Foster, don’t scare me, but this fire really is strange. We’d better hurry inside. If that really is ghost fire or something, we really wouldn’t know how to deal with it.”

Usually, Monkey goes around shouting about overthrowing demons and superstitions every day, but now that he’s actually seen something weird, he’s even more timid than I am, too scared to stay outside.

I shot him a look of disdain and said, “Monkey, for all your talk about breaking superstitions, the moment it matters your political stance starts to waver. It’s really sad to have a comrade like you in the revolutionary ranks.”

Monkey said, “I’ve always stood with the Marxist camp, loyal to the Party Central Committee. Don’t slander me. Isn’t it just that I’ve been spooked by Old Martinez’s ghost stories every night? Sigh, feudal superstitions really do harm people!”

I said, “Alright, alright. Say, Monkey, don’t you want to go check it out and see what that thing really is? You know, even gravity was discovered by studying apples!”

Hearing this, Monkey gave me a thumbs up and said, “Alright, let’s go investigate and unravel this superstitious thinking that’s fooled this village for a thousand years. That way, we won’t let down the Chairman’s expectations for us coming to the countryside!”

I nodded, and then Monkey and I hurried off to Old Smith’s house…

A few minutes later, we arrived in front of Old Smith’s house. I reminded Monkey to be quiet, and together we slowly crept from the front of the house to the back.

Actually, even though we had just reached the front of Old Smith’s house, we could already clearly hear the “quack quack” sound coming from the fireball behind the house.

We hear ducks all the time in this village, but the “quack quack” from this fireball was different. It sounded like a duck, but there was something magical about it, as if it echoed inside our hearts, making our skin crawl. If you listened closely, the “quack quack” sounded even more like crying, which made me shiver uncontrollably!

I wondered if I was just overthinking it, so I asked Monkey, and he said the sound also got under his skin and gave him the chills.

I was puzzled. Logically, with such a loud noise coming from behind the house, Old Smith and his family should have heard it, even if they were sound asleep. But they showed no reaction at all, as if they couldn’t hear it.

To be honest, I didn’t really believe the fire was some ghost, but I was still a bit nervous. Maybe everyone feels this way when facing the unknown!

Before long, Monkey and I reached the back of the house. There, just ten meters away, was the fireball—perfectly round, ghostly blue, floating more than a meter above the ground, spinning continuously…

Seeing the fireball up close, Monkey was really scared. He tugged at my sleeve and said, “Old Foster, do you think this thing could be ghost fire?”

I said, “Why don’t we rush it while it’s not paying attention and try to catch it, see what it really is.”

Hearing this, Monkey quickly shook his head. “No way, if you want to go, go by yourself. Even if it’s not ghost fire, if we just rush in like that, we’ll get burned half to death!”

I thought about it and realized he was right. This is fire, not some wild rabbit or pheasant. Looks like we can’t just grab it like that.

Just as I was at a loss, Monkey suddenly said, “Old Foster, do you remember that ghost story Old Martinez told a few days ago? He said if it’s normal fire, you can still see the light through a thin layer of clothing, but if it’s ghost fire, you can’t see it through fabric. Do you think that’s true? Should we try it?”

I thought about it. Since we had no better ideas, we might as well try Old Martinez’s weird theory. So I nodded, lifted my shirt to cover my eyes, and looked at the ghostly blue fireball ten meters away…

Chapter 11 Something’s About to Happen

As soon as I covered my eyes with my shirt, there was no sign of fire at all! My heart started pounding. Such a big fireball right in front of me—no matter how thin the cloth, I should still be able to see some light. Could this really be the ghost fire Old Martinez talked about?

I was torn, so I quickly moved the shirt away from my eyes and looked ahead. The fireball was still floating right in front of me!

I started to panic. Maybe the shirt was too thick? So I covered my eyes again and looked at the fuzzy moon in the sky. The fuzzy moon was perfectly visible through the cloth! But when I looked at the fireball, I still couldn’t see it…

I was sure I couldn’t see the fireball through the shirt, so I put the shirt down and turned to Monkey. I saw Monkey also looking shocked, his finger trembling as he pointed at the fireball and stammered, “Ol…Old Foster, c-can you see it?”

I shook my head. “No, can you?”

Monkey said he couldn’t see it either, then asked me what to do.

At this point, my mind was a complete mess, with no idea what to do. What was happening in front of us was just too strange. You could see the fuzzy moon through the shirt, but not such a big fireball—there was no way to explain this with science.